US charges Russian intelligence officers over hacking Skripal probe
US AUTHORITIES have charged seven Russian military intelligence officers for hacking the organisation investigating the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal, and anti-doping agencies.
The announcement by the US Justice Department comes after the British and Dutch authorities disclosed they had thwarted an attempt by the GRU to hack the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague.
Assistant attorney general for national security John Demers said the individuals indicted in the US include some of the four GRU officers named by the UK and the Netherlands.
Three defendants had already been charged in an indictment brought in July by the office of the Special Counsel relating to a conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 US presidential elections.
Mr Demers said it was part of a Russian campaign to pursue its interests through “disinformation operations aimed at muddying or altering perceptions of the truth”.
The indictment said the GRU had targeted the hacking victims because they had publicly supported a ban on Russian athletes in international sports competitions and because they had condemned Russia’s state-sponsored athlete doping programme. Prosecutors said the Russians had also targeted a Pennsylvania-
based nuclear energy company. The indictment says the hacking was often conducted remotely. If that was not successful, the hackers would conduct “on-site” or “close access” hacking operations, with trained GRU members travelling with sophisticated equipment to target their victims through wifi networks. Mr Demers acknowledged the defendants were all now in Russia, but warned they “should know that justice is patient and its reach is long and its memory is longer.”
Earlier foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned Moscow could face further sanctions following the release of “hard evidence” that the GRU was behind a string of cyber attacks.
Defence officials in the Netherlands, where OPCW is based, said four Russians had been expelled after the alleged cyber strike.
They also accused one of those GRU officers escorted out of the Netherlands of targeting the Malaysian investigation into the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 when just under 300 people travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur died.
Mr Hunt said the alleged OPCW hack would “put to rest” any doubts people may have about the Russian military involvement in the Salisbury attack. According to the evidence released by the Dutch authorities, the team of four GRU officers travelling on official Russian passports entered the Netherlands on April 10.
On April 13 they parked a car carrying specialist hacking equipment outside the headquarters of the OPCW in The Hague.
Investigators also uncovered evidence the team was planning to travel on to Switzerland where the OPCW - which was at the time investigating a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria as well the Salisbury incident – has a laboratory.